Evaluate the claim that conscience is the voice of God

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Evaluate the claim that the Conscience is the voice of God

Conscience is something that is intrinsic to our everyday lives. The origin and role of the conscience is something that divides people and something that has been used to justify some very terrible acts, approaches to conscience vary, including numerous religions who claim that it is God given. This is the belief that either at conception God gave each person a conscience or that it is imparted to us at some stage to enable us to discern morally correct and incorrect actions. For some philosophers it is the actual voice of God that speaks to them through their conscience.

Thomas Aquinas saw conscience as ‘right reason’. For him, reason was central to the moral life and to understanding the differences between right and wrong. He did not agree that the conscience was an inner voice telling us what is right and what is wrong, he believed that it was ‘reason making right decisions’ and used correctly it helps us to understand what God sees as good and right. His belief was that people try to do good and avoid evil, called the Synderesis rule. In all situations our subconscious actions are to do good, however he said that due to faulty reasoning or weakness of will some people perform bad actions thinking that they are good, and therefore commit sinful acts (for example a man who commits adultery). Aquinas said that they had followed an apparent food, rather than real food, so in effect their conscience was mistaken.

Aquinas divided the conscience in to two parts, Synderesis and Conscienta, which is distinguishing between right and wrong and making appropriate decisions. He didn’t believe tat the actions of the conscience were always correct. He said that as long as you apply the moral principles that your conscience has shown you, and then you are following the correct course of action. However, if your principles are flawed then your conscience must be too.

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Joseph Butler and Cardinal Newman are two well known figures who believe that our conscience is like having the voice of God speaking directly to us. According to butler humans are motivated by two basic principles; self love (selfish) and Benevolence (seeking well being of others). The conscience encourages man away from selfish love and towards focussing on the interests and happiness of others. Butler held that the conscience enables us to judge and determine the rightness or wrongness of our actions. His belief was that it is given to intuitively and it exerts itself at the correct time ...

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